Twitter hands over 201 handles of Russian-linked accounts to Senate investigators

Twitter has handed over to Senate investigators the profile names, or “handles,” of 201 accounts linked to Russian attempts at influencing the 2016 presidential election. The company has stepped up its efforts to co-operate with investigators after it was criticized for not taking congressional probes seriously enough.

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The handover occurred this week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

READ MORE: Twitter briefing to U.S. investigators called ‘deeply disappointing’ by senator

What remains unclear is whether posts associated with those accounts have been deleted from Twitter’s servers. Politico reported on Friday that the company had deleted the tweets in line with its privacy policy. Twitter had no comment on that report.

Twitter is set to appear Nov. 1 before the Senate intelligence committee. Facebook and Google have also been invited to testify.